The Vagaries of Magic
by Beautiful Thief
Summary: Two idiots have a brilliant idea to make an attempt at spell crafting. They fail.


Written for Day 5 of aokiseweek - Animals. I love catboy fic, there's beyond not enough of it for AoKise sobs

* * *

It was an accident.

Daiki would swear black and blue to anyone that would listen (not a lot of people, to be fair) that it was all Kise's fault, because _he_ was supposed to be the one stabilising the spell – but he knew it was his fault.

Spell design had never been either of their fortes – Kise could cast anything he'd seen, but he didn't really understand the intricacies of spell design and _why_ a spell worked when he went through the processes he saw. Spell design was also an academic pursuit, but Daiki had thought that he'd be able to do it if he'd put his mind to it.

Clearly he'd been wrong.

Kise was coughing on the other side of their magical circle, which had exploded in smoke, and Daiki was pretty sure Kise was going to murder him when he realised where the spell energy had redirected itself.

"Aominecchi," Daiki heard Kise say. His voice was flat and hard and Daiki tried to count all the deadly spells he knew Kise had seen performed and the odds of his being able to call up a strong enough shielding spell in time to prevent his imminent demise. "Why do I have a _tail_?"

"Um..."

* * *

"Please tell me you can fix it Akashicchi," Kise pleaded.

Akashi looked between the two of them calmly. Daiki wondered how he was still alive – he had been previously attributing his continued existence to the fact that Kise was all tapped out of magical energy, but Akashi had no such impairment.

"I can," Akashi said, delicately, "but I won't."

Kise wailed.

"This is your karmic punishment from whatever spell it was you were attempting." Akashi looked as if he knew exactly what that spell was, and was judging them very deeply for it. "Your lesson would hardly be learned if I removed the consequences."

"But, _my job_," Kise protested, and Daiki started to wonder how it was that _Kise _was still alive.

Akashi twitched.

Kise whimpered.

Daiki grabbed his new tail and tried to get the short, black fur to stop puffing out.

* * *

"I hate you."

Daiki wanted to laugh – it was a _literal hiss_ – but Kise looked really angry and upset, his new ginger ears flat against his head and his new tail puffed out and rapidly swishing left and right. Kise had never looked at him like that before. They'd fucked up a few spells before – once Daiki had burned his eyebrows off and Kise had laughed every time he looked at Daiki for a week straight; Kise had once accidentally turned his hair sky blue and Tetsu had given him the stink eye all day – but they'd never screwed up a spell of this magnitude, and they'd never had to deal with a backlash like this.

"We don't even know if they're ever going to go away. How am I supposed to work like this, Aomine?"

"Reschedule?" Daiki asked. "If it's permanent, Akashi will remove it sooner or later. If it isn't we just have to wait it out."

Kise let out an angry yowl and stalked off, looking every inch the offended cat whose ears and tail he now sported.

"He didn't call you by his nickname."

Daiki yelped as Tetsu's figure wavered into sight. "What the fuck, Tetsu?"

Tetsu sighed. "I wanted to know if you had developed any heightened senses, such as hearing and smell that would let you detect me when my notice-me-not spell is active. It seems that is not the case."

"...you took pictures didn't you, you little bastard."

Tetsu tilted his head. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

* * *

Two days later, and Daiki's feeling pretty goddamn miserable.

The worst part is that everyone can tell; where he'd usually be able to get by faking that he's absolutely not bothered at all by the new additions to his body, his black ears are almost constantly set at an angle that can _only_ be described as 'miserable', and his tail is constantly twitching. Kagami keeps snickering every time he sees him, Midorima looks at him like he's judging him _really _hard (and not because of the subject of the spell, which he must have figured out; it's more like he's judging Daiki for fucking it up _so badly_), and Kise has refused to even look at him once, his ginger ears and tail similarly marking his own distress.

Kagami doesn't laugh at Kise, because the first time he did Kise looked like he was going to start _actually_ crying (Daiki was convinced, though, that this was actually the true form of his crocodile tears, so everyone would be fooled exactly when necessary; the flattened ears did kind of make Kise look especially pathetic though), and Tetsu had punched him in the ribs.

Daiki's not allowed outside. The true nature of the academy is not public knowledge, and Akashi has expressly forbidden him from leaving until the side-effect wears off. That was heartening, since it meant it _would_ wear off, but frustrating, because Daiki hasn't been to the nearby basketball court in three days. He really hates being cooped up like this. His cabin fever is getting out of control. (He's pretty sure if he blows up one more thing Akashi will make the ears and tail permanent and force Daiki to waste energy on glamours every time he's out for the rest of his life.)

He's not miserable enough to go up to Kise and suggest they try and find whatever spell it is Akashi knows that could get rid of these annoying appendages. Mostly because it's kind of painful, the way that Kise won't even look at him these days. Usually he's back to his normal self pretty quick – everyone screws up a spell every now and again, after all – but while Daiki's aware he is the least in-tune with empathic wavelengths out of their cohort, he's not completely incapable. There's an odd edge to Kise's displeasure.

Daiki wants to ask Satsuki – other than Tetsu and Midorima, she has some of the highest ranked empathic abilities – but it's not like she'll actually tell him. _"It's rude to pry into other people's feelings, Dai-chan,"_ he suspects will be her answer.

But Daiki's never run from a confrontation before, and he's not about to start now. So it is at the end of their third day of being, as Murasakibara termed them, _catboys_, that Daiki makes his way to the temporary dorm room that Kise was allocated to and knocks on it.

Kise answers, but his tail, which has longer hair than Daiki's, now that he looks it properly, becomes very bushy and agitated even as Kise crosses his arms and leans against the doorframe in an attempt to act casual and unbothered by Daiki's presence.

(Daiki's always seen through most of Kise's pretence, so he didn't need the visual of Kise's ginger tabby tail becoming a bottle brush to tell him that wasn't how he felt.)

"What do you want, Aominecchi?"

Well, he's cooled down enough to call him that again – that's good, that's a positive in Daiki's favour.

"Well, I'm tired of hanging out in my temporary room, and people keep laughing at me so I thought I'd come keep you company."

"I don't want you to keep me company. It was _your_ idea, this is _all_ your fault—"

Daiki hadn't meant to become entranced by the way Kise's tail was lashing back and forth, but it was somehow mesmerising. When a particularly powerful flick of the tail sent it near enough, Daiki grabbed it.

"Let go of my tail," Kise hissed.

"Don't be a spoil sport," Daiki replied. "You can touch mine if you want."

Kise went bright pink, and Daiki tilted his head, curious about the reaction.

"Did you want to touch my ears instead?"

Kise's face was turning steadily redder. "Let go of my tail, Aominecchi."

"Yours is nicer than mine." Daiki ignored Kise's request in order to stroke the fur. It was nice and fluffy and soft. "I guess it makes sense but still."

"This feels weird," Kise complained.

Daiki lets go, but only to reach for Kise's ears. This time, Kise ducks back into his room. "That was not an invitation to _keep _touching the animal parts you put on my body."

He grins and steps into the room after Kise. "Come on, you're not curious? I bet you've been brushing that tail of yours. Did you ask Tetsu to buy you a pet brush?"

Kise buries his face in his hands. "You're awful."

Daiki grins and drops to lie stomach down on Kise's bed. "Come on. You want to touch mine as much as I wanted to touch yours."

"Do you absolutely have to phrase it that way?" he hears Kise mutter as he sits gingerly on the bed and reaches for Daiki's tail.

Kise's right – it _does_ feel kind of weird. Not bad though. It was just odd, feeling sensation on a limb that didn't, or perhaps, shouldn't, actually exist.

It was kind of relaxing though, feeling Kise's fingers run along the bony bumps of his tail. Then he let go and flopped down next to Daiki. There wasn't exactly all that much room on the bed; it was only supposed to be big enough for one person, after all.

Kise reached for his ear, and Daiki swatted it away lazily. "Touch for touch, Kise."

He seems to pause for a moment, considering, and then grabs one of Daiki's arms to haul him onto his side. Then his grip moves to Daiki's wrist, and he ducks his head.

Kise's ears are warm and fuzzy and they twitch beneath his touch. The fur here, like his tail, is longer and softer than the fur on Daiki's tail and ears.

"This is a good look on you," Daiki says. He's only half teasing. Kise has a really pretty face, he can't help but notice when they're this close, and embarrassingly, Daiki can't help but feel that Kise's really _cute_ with the ears, in a way that only girls were supposed to be cute.

"Don't be stupid," Kise muttered, and Daiki's eyes flicked down towards his face and on the way they caught on Kise's human ears – which were pinker than usual.

As his fingers stroked gently over the more solid base of Kise's new ears, Daiki felt the pieces begin to fall together.

_Oh_.

Well this was... different. Unexpected. As he rubbed his fingers where the ear connected to Kise's scalp, Kise whined, and he pulled his hand away almost as if he was burned.

"Why'd you stop, that felt nice."

"Not weird?" Daiki teased.

Kise huffed and let himself fall forward to bury his face in the pillow. "Tails are an extension of the spine, so it makes me nervous to think you could paralyse me or some shit by yanking on it."

Daiki frowned. "I'll have you know I was never the kind of kid to torture small animals like that."

Pink dusted Kise's cheeks. "I wasn't saying you were!"

"Seems that way to me." But he returned his fingers to Kise's hair (his hair was really soft too; it was fucking with his head) and pressed circles into the place where Kise's hair gave way to ginger fur with his thumb.

It took him a moment to realise this was actually a pretty intimate kind of situation. The small bed meant their bodies were closer than they usually would be, even with Daiki on his side and Kise on his stomach.

It made him flush unexpectedly, and his hand stilled in Kise's hair.

Kise looked up at him, looking for all intents and purposes like a very content cat.

Daiki didn't know quite what possessed him to do it – maybe it was the sleepy look on his face, or the way he already had his fingers tangled in Kise's shiny golden hair; or maybe it was the way that Kise's fluffy ears were pointing forward for the first time since they'd appeared on his body – whatever it was, he leaned in towards Kise's face, ignoring the way Kise appeared to panic in the moment he realised what was happening, and kissed him.

It ended almost the moment it started, the kiss being the barest touching of their lips, when Kise tried to back away, only to fall off the bed with a heavy thump.

Daiki couldn't help it – he started laughing. Kise looked at him from the floor, confusion and annoyance evident in his eyes and the way his tail was twitching. Daiki couldn't stop, though – he curled in on his stomach as he laughed, and eventually, Kise cracked a very small, sheepish smile.

When Daiki could finally look at Kise without devolving into laughter, Kise asked.

"Why?"

"Ah... I guess I felt like it?" It was a terrible explanation. Daiki sat up and scratched the back of his neck. He didn't have a better explanation. He'd just done it. He hadn't thought about it, or what it could mean, or anything like that.

Kise slumped to plant his face into the sheets. "You're awful, Aominecchi, you know that? Just because you wanted to is a mean reason to kiss someone."

"I was just kind of thinking you were cute is all," Daiki defended himself, crossing his arms. "I mean, that's your job right, being pretty looking and stuff..." Okay, he was really digging himself into a hole here. Daiki sealed his traitorous mouth with a click of his teeth.

On the floor, Kise was looking... well, _mischievous_.

He stood up, almost alarmingly graceful, and slid one knee onto the bed, and then another. Daiki couldn't help as he backed up a little – and then his back hit the wall.

"A touch for a touch, right, Aominecchi?" Kise said, sliding closer, his smile almost sly. "That was the deal."

Daiki felt heat begin to creep into his cheeks, and he looked for an escape. Kise hooked his knees over Daiki's crossed legs to prevent an easy way out.

"Kise," Daiki started, and then Kise reached for his ears.

He swallowed heavily as Kise's weight settled on his thighs and Kise's fingers explored his ears, and his heart felt like it had just started beating twice as fast as usual and his face felt _really hot_ and Kise wasn't even looking at his ears as he brushed his fingertips along the edges of them; instead he looked at Daiki's face, which was trapped in an upward tilt by Kise's hands to look at him.

"Kise," Daiki repeated.

"Mmm?" Kise hummed, that damnably pleased and knowing smile still sitting on his face as he stroked his fingers across the short black fur of Daiki's ears. "What is it, Aominecchi?"

Daiki didn't know what to say or do about this situation. Kise was settled fairly firmly and steadily – it would be difficult to get him off Daiki's lap from this position without one of them incurring some kind of injury, and he couldn't damn well back down from the bargain he'd made. It was just... watching Kise watch his face as he petted him, for lack of a better term, was embarrassing.

And Daiki had a feeling that Kise was about to get revenge for Daiki's ill-thought-out kiss, too.

Kise was drawing it out though, as if sensing Daiki's unease and expectation. His thumbs explored the point where Daiki's skin gave way to short black fur, then slid up the edges, making them flick. His hands were gentle and warm and it all felt like too much, and Daiki couldn't help letting his eyes close, unable to bear the gaze Kise had settled on his face.

That was the moment that Kise chose to kiss him. It wasn't a long or intense kiss – slightly longer than the brush that the last one had been – but it was warm and gentle and it was over too quickly, and Daiki opened his eyes as Kise drew away.

"Now we're even," Kise said. His cheeks and ears were red, and his hands were still settled in Daiki's hair.

There only seemed to be one thing for Daiki to do.

He reached up for Kise's ears again with a grin, and pulled his head back down.

* * *

"Do you think they've noticed?"

Tetsuya looked up at Kagami-kun, who was looking ahead at their classmates as they walked between classes.

"No," Tetsuya replied, smiling slightly, and he pulled out his phone.

After all, it was far too sweet a moment not to capture, Kise-kun and Aomine-kun walking side by side as they argued, their tails twisted around each other.


End file.
